Burma over Time

Burma’s long history starts with the early peoples who settled along the coast and in the Irrawaddy Valley, the advent of Buddhism more than two thousand years ago, the arrival of Bamar and Shan peoples from the north, and the rise of Bamar and Shan city-states and kingdoms. The colonial period, beginning with the First Anglo-Burmese War in 1824, ended with independence in 1948. Recent history begins with independence and touches on the complicated events since then, from the military coup in 1962 to the recent opening of the country to democracy.